NAQT Illinois State Championship

The NAQT Illinois State Tournament is one of three state championships held in Illinois.

Results

DATE	CHAMPION	RUNNER-UP	3rd PLACE	SMALL SCHOOL	ATTENDANCE	HOST	STATS
2/2005	Stevenson	Wheaton North	New Trier		9	Loyola
2/2006	Stevenson	New Trier	Loyola		12	Loyola
3/2007	New Trier	Maine South	Carbondale		8	Loyola	[1]
2/2008	Auburn	Loyola	Carbondale		9	UIUC	[2]
3/2009	Auburn	Carbondale	New Trier		12	Fenton	[3]
3/2010	Auburn	Carbondale	OPRF		18	Fenton	[4]
2/2011	Stevenson	Auburn	Loyola		17	Fenton	[5]
2/2012	Auburn	IMSA A	Carbondale1		24	Fenton	[6]
2/2013	IMSA	Auburn	Belvidere North	Peoria Christian	28	Bloomington	[7]
2/2014	IMSA A	Stevenson	Bloomington A	Litchfield	40	UIUC	[8]
2/2015	Auburn	Hinsdale Central A	IMSA A	Macomb A	36	UIUC	[9]
2/2016	Auburn	Hinsdale Central A	IMSA A	Macomb A	40	UIUC	[10]
2/11/2017	Stevenson A	Barrington	Naperville North	Southwestern A	30	UIUC	[11]
2/10/2018	Urbana Uni High A2	Auburn	Fremd A	Urbana Uni High A	30	UIUC	[12]
2/23/2019	Auburn	Stevenson A	Urbana Uni High A	Urbana Uni High A	30	UIUC	[13]
2/29/2020	Urbana Uni High A	Stevenson A	Barrington A	Urbana Uni High A	32	UIUC	[14]
20213
2/26/2022	Buffalo Grove	Barrington A	Stevenson	Urbana Uni High	20	Centennial	[15]

Notes

1. Ben Chametzky played solo in 2012.
2. With only around 320 students in regular attendance, University of Illinois Lab became the smallest known school to win any open or large division state championship (there may have been smaller schools that won a Masonic State Title in the early years before it was a true state-wide contest).
3. Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.

History

Northwestern began hosting an annual high school NAQT tournament in 1999, which was the first tournament to consistently use NAQT questions in Illinois. While the tournament started drawing as many as 41 teams in 2001 (with teams coming from Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin), the tournament has seen a significant decline in attendance since. Northwestern no longer hosts a tournament with NAQT questions, though they still host high school and middle school tournaments.

Prior to 2005 few Illinois teams attended NAQT tournaments outside of Illinois. Perhaps, most notoriously, Loyola Academy attended and won the Iowa State Championship in 2004, a year in which it did not even advance from its own regional in the IHSA State Series. People such as David Riley, Linda Greene, and David Reinstein began pushing for more tournaments to be run on good questions like NAQT, which led to a gradual increase in the number of tournaments using the questions, and the number of teams coming out to the NAQT State Tournament.

While Illinois quizbowl questions had been gradually improving during the early 2000s, it was not until the 2004-05 season that Illinois would get its own regular state championship and qualifier for the HSNCT. This came largely at the request of Loyola Academy coach David Riley. In the years that followed, question quality saw a gradual improvement. Local tournament and match formats are now largely in line with national standards.

William and Janet Egan Memorial Trophy

Starting in 2013, the tournament started recognizing a small school champion.

Starting in 2015, the winner of the tournament receives the William and Janet Egan Memorial Trophy, a perpetual trophy which the winner keeps only so long as they continue winning the tournament. The trophy was donated by the family of William and Janet Egan, and largely consists of a crystal bowl that was William's retirement gift. Even though the trophy was not awarded until 2015, it records the names of the tournament champions dating to the inception of the tournament in 2005. The IHSSBCA officially oversees the trophy and its awarding.

The tournament was not held in 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2022, the tournament has been hosted by Centennial High School in Champaign, marking the first time since 2014 that the tournament was not hosted by the University of Illinois.

See Also

• NAQT Illinois State Tournament Record Book
• Masonic tournament - State Tournament hosted by the Illinois Masons
• Illinois High School Association Tournament

High School Quizbowl in Illinois Organizations Coaches Association · Illinois HS Association State Tournaments NAQT (records) · IHSA · Masonic Awards & Honors All-State & All-Sectional · Coaches Hall of Fame · Team Illinois Major Tournaments Earlybird · Novice · Scobol Solo · David Riley Memorial Kickoffs · HFT Mirror at Auburn · Reinstein Varsity · Macomb Rotary · Turnabouts · Ultima